FANS OF GOLF COURSE SLAM WETLANDS PLAN

Bonsall property would be restored to its natural state

BONSALL 
A plan to buy the San Luis Rey Downs Country Club and Golf Course, then demolish it and return the 185-acre property to natural wetlands, has some golfers and nearby residents screaming bogey.

The golf course in Bonsall was built in 1963 and hosts tens of thousands of rounds each year. But the golf industry is very competitive and not as profitable as it once was. Two years ago, the course owners decided to sell.

Enter a company called Conservation Land Group Inc., which has an exclusive option to buy the property through a subsidiary called Moosa Creek LLC. The group’s purchase is contingent on getting approval from several government agencies — including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — on a plan to completely dismantle the course and turn it into a land bank, also known as a mitigation bank.

When a developer or utility wants to build something in an undisturbed area, they are often required to offset the environmental damage by restoring land elsewhere to its natural state — a process called mitigation.

For decades, Conservation Land Group has been buying and restoring land, then selling mitigation credits to developers who need them to get a project approved.

Under the company’s plan for the San Luis Rey site, buildings, bridges, golf cart paths, fairways, greens and tees would be bulldozed and the entire property would be reconfigured and replanted to look like it did before the golf course.

The project would require the removal of up to 350,000 cubic yards of fill materials that have been added at the site, the project’s prospectus states.

The plan has been bouncing around for a couple of years, said Conservation Land Group President Kevin Knowles, but it wasn’t until recently — when an application to create the land bank was submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers — that it became public knowledge.

Now people opposed to the plans, including many who have homes near the course, are upset, saying it could lessen property values and deprive them of one of the reasons they live there.

“It’s mind-boggling why someone would want to spend millions — and it would take millions of dollars to bulldoze down all of those berms surrounding the golf course property — and turn it into wetlands, which would spoil all the views of all the homes around it,” said Jon Frandell, a Fallbrook businessman and golfer.

“If you own a property, you can sell it to whoever you want,” he said. “The question is why would a land bank have an interest in destroying a developed property?”

Frandell said the course brings in sales tax revenues and employs 40 people. Just as importantly, he said, property values of hundreds of homes nearby would be lessened. He said wetlands attract transients and mosquitoes and the danger of brush fire.

“I don’t know who came up with the idea, but I think it’s flawed,” he said. “I’ve played that course for 20 years. To turn it back to wetlands is a severe mistake.”